District Interviews

Alright so, this is really late considering the interviews were a week ago, but I've been pretty busy! This will probably be pretty long, so bear with me :).

Friday:
We had to meet in the parking lot of a park somewhat near my house. I put off packing until I got home from after school, so I was really worried I'd be late! We got there at exactly 4:30, though, and not everyone was there yet. When we got there, I saw one of my sister's friends, Paige, who was also interviewing! It was a really nice surprise and I felt a lot better knowing someone else that was going. We all put our stuff in the car and got in there, but Junso (my Rotary club contact.. he interviewed me at the club level) was talking to my mom for a really long time. I was afraid he was talking to her about how I didn't have a club and this weekend wasn't for sure and a whole bunch of other stuff, but my mom told me he was saying good things :). In the car there were three inbounds (Ecuador, Taiwan, Brazil) and I think 6 possible outbounds. Junso told us that there were 27 of us being interviewed, but they only had 19 spots available. I started really getting nervous after that! After about an hour we arrived at Adventure Park in Visalia. There were so many people there.. everyone went around shaking hands and introducing themselves. It was hard to distinguish inbounds from outbounds.. so every greeting started with, "Where are you from?" The inbounds did their country presentations and we got to walk around and meet all of them and hear about the countries. After that, I didn't care where I went: I just wanted to go! We all ate and played games, and then a group of us played laser tag! It was all a lot of fun :). After, we went to our weekend host family's house. We stayed with Peter, who used to be the one in charge of all of this. He gave us a lot of advice. In our house was two Brazilians, Isa and Cecilia, and Ariel, another outbound, and I. It was adorable listening to them speak in Portuguese :).

Saturday:
We all met at San Joaquin Valley College and had breakfast and sat around for about an hour before the meeting started. All of the outbounds had to stand up and introduce themselves, saying why they wanted to exchange and where they wanted to go. They talked to us about almost all aspects of the exchange and it was really interesting. After, the inbounds left to go to the Sequoia trees, and our parents came. While they talked to our parents, we played a really interesting game called Bafa Bafa. It showed us really interesting aspects of cultural differences and not knowing how to act in a strange environment. When we finished, we sat in the room with our parents and waited to be called back for interviews! When it was finally my turn, my mom and I were really nervous. The first room was not hard at all. They asked me my strongest trait, my weakest trait, and my country selections. I chose Norway, Sweden, and Belgium. In the next room, I was asked to talk about a goal I set for myself and accomplished, a time I was mature, and if I was working out all the credits and such to graduate on time. The last room was Rotex, and they asked me about homesickness and how I would deal with it. Overall it was really short and I feel good about how it went :). After the interviews, the inbounds came back. We all went to this school and ate dinner and had a talent show. Paige and I told jokes as our talent :). It was just a lot of fun to let go and see everyone have fun. We all stood in a circle and had candles and turned the lights out. As we lit each other's candles, we had to say a wish we had for the group or inbounds or outbounds. It was really emotional and it made me realize how real everything is!

Sunday:
We met at a mexican restaurant, Amigos, to have breakfast. After breakfast, they talked to us about the application a little bit. When we finished, the district had their meeting to discuss a preliminary list of who was going and who wasn't. While they talked, we all went to Starbucks. We pretty much took over, and were there for hours. I talked to a lot of inbounds though and it was all just a lot of fun. When they finished, we all left. It was really sad leaving, because I didn't know if I'd ever see any of them again!

Overall, it was an amazing weekend. It opened my eyes a lot to the process and what exchange really means. I should find out next week if I made it or not :)!

Not really exchange related..

I just looked at the date, and there's 12 days until my Rotary district interview! I'm seriously excited to see how that goes. In all honesty, if I don't get picked up by a club and don't end up making it.. I don't know what I'll do :/. I've been in the mindset that I'm going for so long now.. It's hard to imagine not being able to!

Rotary Interview!

So this is pretty late, but my club interview was on Tuesday!

There were two of us being interviewed, and they told us they were only going to sponsor one. However, if both of us seemed like good applicants, they would send both applications to the District level and another club might pick up the other one.

I was pretty nervous going in and rambled a lot about everything! We laughed a couple of times though, which helped make it a lot more relaxing. Throughout the whole interview, I realized I called one member of Rotary by the wrong name, and e-mailed one of my interviewers right after. He told me they understood who I meant, and that they were going to send both applications to the district!!

So now I have district interviews from November 19th - November 21st! I'm so excited yet extremely nervous. If anyone has any advice about how district interviews go, let me know!

...Waiting

My Rotary interview is in exactly one week! Finally! I'm so eager to start the process. It's basically all I can think about.

I'm so annoyed with regular life. High school is boring. Immaturity is annoying. It's really bad and I suppose I should be more appreciative of things here but it's hard to be when I feel like there's a lot of adventure out there and I'm stuck in Fresno.

I'll write more following my interview. Wish me luck!

Dramatic changes..

Alright so! So many things have changed since I last posted.. and it's kind of embarrassing looking back at the last post I made since.. well I'll explain.

About a week after my last post, I discussed the financial aspects of an exchange with my family, and we realized that trying to raise $9,000 by November was somewhat unrealistic. After much reconsidering, we decided to look into other cheaper programs for me to go next year.

We looked into Rotary Youth Exchange, and I've sent in an initial application. We have interviews in October, and then again in November for the weekend, which I'm really excited for! I'm just really hoping things work out through Rotary, as they're fairly selective.

While I am really bummed things didn't work out with AFS, I think I'll be very happy just being able to go anywhere through any program :)

Nerves, Stress, and Doubt!

Alright so, this is going to be the most depressing post I'll probably ever write, but hopefully it's a window into what I'm currently feeling.

The students leaving for the year program in Italy fly out tomorrow night. I can't even explain how jealous I am. They have their applications done, their trip paid for, and their visas done. Guess what I have? Nothing. No full application yet. No money at all. No visa. I'm so worried.

Basically, I've spent the past two weeks thinking about this exchange and what it means to me. In June, I looked into it for fun. Just something to consider and look at and dream about. Over three months, I've fallen in love with the idea. I want to go to another country. I want to learn a new language. I want to experience a new culture. I want to explore. I want to travel. I want to start living.

I'm so worried about not getting funded. It literally scares me to the point where I want to just give up all the time. It's hard to stay positive when you've made effort with no luck. I've sat here and thought about how much money I'm NOT making and how I'll NEVER be able to go and this was all silly and I should've never even started this process. Lately, the side of me that started this journey is screaming at me. Why haven't I made attempts at fundraising? Why do I get home and nap, instead of writing emails, making phone calls, or visiting businesses asking for a minute of their time to explain my trip? Why am I sitting here, saying "I can't, I can't, I can't" when in reality, I'm not, I'm not I'm not?

Advice for any future exchangers: Do NOT lose hope! If you want it bad enough, somehow it will happen. I need to take this more seriously and get dedicated to fundraising and make a darn effort. It's not going to just fall in my lap. I'm not going to stumble upon an abandoned briefcase with 9,000 dollars. I have to work for it, I have to grow up, and I have to take myself a lot more seriously.

Starting today I'm going to make it known that this is what I'm doing and I'm going to get it no matter what. I need to start establishing myself as a foreign exchanger instead of a "possible foreign exchanger". I AM leaving in January, and I WILL live in Italy for 6 months! Prayers, donations, advice, anything at this point is very appreciated.

Work & Such

Today was my second day of work! Yesterday was my first, and it was a WAY better day than today. Today was really just not fun at all. It was super slow and I kept doing every little thing wrong. But by the end of the week I'll have made $92 so that's a positive thing! Oh and here's a picture of me in my adorable uniform :D!

I got an email from my local AFS representative telling me about a Central California scholarship! However, they review scholarships in January, but I'd leave in January.. so I basically have to be funded and then I assume I'd be refunded? So it doesn't solve the lack of money now situation. He said he emailed the Portland AFS office to see why I was rejected from Global Leaders.. so maybe there's still hope.

On a way positive note.. our house is basically sold! So now we have 45 days to secure a place to live (although it probably won't take that long) and then I can turn in my full application with the $900 deposit! But first I have to actually go to the doctor/school and get all the forms filled out that are necessary. Oh and I'll probably have to have some type of a photo shoot for my cover page/picture page.. ha.

Anyway, it's exciting that things are actually moving forward (even if slowly) and I'm making money so yay! Things can only go up from here!